Ergers and Acquisitions in Germany
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WORKING PAPER SERIES Mergers and Acquisitions in Germany Frank A. Schmid and Mark Wahrenburg Working Paper 2002-027A http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2002/2002-027.pdf November 2002 FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS Research Division 411 Locust Street St. Louis, MO 63102 ______________________________________________________________________________________ The views expressed are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Federal Reserve System, or the Board of Governors. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Working Papers are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment. References in publications to Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Working Papers (other than an acknowledgment that the writer has had access to unpublished material) should be cleared with the author or authors. Photo courtesy of The Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO. www.gatewayarch.com Mergers and Acquisitions in Germany Frank A. Schmid * Research Department Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 411 Locust Street St. Louis, MO 63102, U.S.A. Tel.: 001-314-444-8804 Fax: 001-314-444-8731 E-mail: [email protected] Mark Wahrenburg Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Mertonstrasse 17 60054 Frankfurt am Main, Germany Tel.: 049-69-798-22142 Fax: 049-69-798-22143 E-mail: [email protected] October 26, 2002 Word Count (exclusive of cover page and footer): 11,970 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. The Social Setting 3. The Regulatory Framework 4. Barriers to Mergers and Acquisitions 5. Conclusion Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions JEL-classification: G34 ___________________________________________________________________________ * The views expressed in this chapter are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis or the Federal Reserve System. The chapter was written while Schmid was visiting Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. 1. Introduction On July 5, 2001, the European parliament threw out the proposed European takeover directive after more than 12 years of negotiations. The defeat of the directive means that, for the foreseeable future, individual country law remains preeminent in both domestic and cross-border transactions in Europe. German members of the European parliament were pivotal in the vote on the takeover directive. The German government, along with opposition parties, business organizations, and organized labor all welcomed the decision. German chancellor Gerhard Schröder expressed satisfaction about the demise of the European takeover directive, stating "Now Germany can do what I'd proposed all along" (Financial Times, July 6, 2001, "Berlin glee greets demise of EU takeover directive"). The Schröder administration quickly drafted a national takeover law. The Takeover Act, which entered into force on January 1, 2002, replaced the Takeover Code, which had been introduced in 1995 in a failed effort of self-regulation. Most significantly, the Takeover Act allows management to take defensive actions against unsolicited takeover bids on the condition that these actions are in the corporation's best interest. The law explicitly states that management may solicit competing bids in search of a "white knight." Also, the law gives shareholders the power to pre-approve defensive measures, which management may take at its own discretion within 18 months of such a shareholder resolution. In the interim, the European Commission entrusted a group of experts with reviving the project of harmonizing takeover rules within the European Union. The Report of the High Level Group of Company Law Experts on Issues Related to Takeover Bids, dubbed "Winter Report" after the name of its chairman, Jaap Winter, was submitted to the Commission on January 10, 2002. The Winter group had two mandates. One mandate was to provide suggestions for creating a level playing field for cross-border mergers and acquisitions in Mergers and Acqusitions - October3, 2002 - Page 1 of 40 Europe. The other mandate was to come forth with recommendations for modernizing corporate law and corporate governance in Europe. At the time of writing of this chapter, the discussion of the report in academia and among policymakers was still underway. Much of the criticism has zeroed in on the proposed "one share, one vote" principle and, related to that, the suggested breakthrough rule (Berklof and Burkhart, 2002; Bebchuk and Hart, 2002). Under the breakthrough rule, upon acquiring 75 percent of the residual cash flow rights ("risk capital") of a corporation, a bidder would be able to gain full control over the corporationZregardless of the voting power this equity stake confers. The breakthrough rule would foil efforts of wealth-constrained founding families to retain control while their corporations expandZa subject to be discussed below. National differences in corporate governance practices in Europe, such as board structures, shareholder structures, and labor participation rights, make it difficult to operate in the European cross-border mergers and acquisitions environment. Particularly thorny issues are "golden shares" and labor participation in corporate decision-making. Golden shares are equity stakes held by government authorities, mostly in industries that are of national interest, such as utilities (energy, telecom, water) and defense. Frequently, golden shares date back to the time when the companies in questions were privatized. Although golden shares might not fully insulate companies from takeover attempts, they render the government pivotal to the outcome. Not surprisingly, governments tend to favor "domestic solutions" over cross-border takeoversZan uneven playing field. What's more, companies that have issued golden shares tend to acquire aggressively, be it at home or abroad. First, the government stake expands the company's borrowing capacity through the implicit government guarantee on its debt as demonstrated by the steep borrowing of privatized European telecom providers in the late 1990s. Second, the diminished takeover threat lessens the penalty for squandering financial resources on over-expansionZthe European telecom industry again being a case in point. The widespread use of golden shares among its European neighbors was critical for Germany in causing the collapse of the proposed takeover directive in the European Mergers and Acqusitions - October3, 2002 - Page 2 of 40 parliamentZa proposal that had been mute on this issue. In the meantime, the European Court of Justice on June 4, 2002, dealt a blow to the way the French and Portuguese governments at the time used golden shares to retain control over privatized companies, forcing these governments to rethink their practices. On the other hand, the court permitted a more restrained golden-shares practice employed by the Belgium government, as reported by the Financial Times (June 5, 2002, "Europe strikes a balance over golden shares"). Another area in which the harmonization efforts of the European Union were struggling is labor participation in company decisions. On October 8, 2001, after 31 years of negotiation, the European Union gave birth to the Societas Europea, or SE. The legislation, which is set to enter into force in 2004, allows companies that operate in more than one state of the European Union to establish as a single company under European Union law. The Financial Times (October 9, 2001, "EU establishes European company statute") quotes Frits Bolkestein, the internal market commissioner, saying that the SE would "enable companies to expand and restructure their cross-border operations without the costly and time-consuming red tape of having to set up a network of subsidiaries." European harmonization efforts notwithstanding, to date, individual country law dominates in both domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions in Europe. This chapter reviews the social setting and the regulatory framework for mergers and acquisitions or, more generally, for the transfer of cash flow rights on complex assets in Germany. We also provide a survey on takeover barriers. We stay clear of issues in flux, such as the current discussion of the Winter report. Descriptive statistical information we provide only to the degree necessary for characterizing critical attributes of the merger and acquisition activity in Germany. The interested reader may find extensive statistical data at <http://www.mergers-and-acquisitions.de/>. Mergers and Acqusitions - October3, 2002 - Page 3 of 40 2. The Social Setting For understanding the merger and acquisition activity in Germany, both in the opportunities they offer and the limits they are subject to, it is important to be familiar with the German way of doing business. Germany pursues a strongly consensus-oriented, egalitarian economic approach called Soziale MarktwirtschaftZa principle anchored in the country's constitution and shared by all quarters of society. This consensus-oriented business approach, which has been dubbed "Rhineland capitalism" in the financial press (most recently, Financial Times, July 10, 2002, "Collapse of Babcock unravels Germany's way of doing deals"), makes transactions in the market for corporate control particularly intricate. In mergers and acquisitions, third parties are at risk of being expropriated of unenforceable claimsZbe they pecuniary or non-pecuniary. Most importantly, transfers of residual cash flow rights might adversely